August Silicon Valley Real Estate Market Update

Here are my observations of the most recent July transactions for Santa Clara County real estate and San Mateo County real estate. Your comments and questions are always welcome. If you see something in your neighborhood that you are curious about or have a question, please don't hesitate to share with us. If you have questions or a comment, please leave them here, or feel free to contact me through my website or send me an email.

General Market Observations and Comments -- The amount of homes (single family and condos and townhouses) available for sale continue at low levels. The level reached in July was the lowest for this time of the year in at least 12 years! Most areas in both counties have the characteristics of a seller's market with more than half of the closings during July had a sales price greater than a list price (57% in Santa Clara County and 51% in San Mateo County). That said, a well-priced listing has a tendency to attract more activity and multiple offers.

Which Half Are You? --  In July, it took just 13 days to sell half of the homes in Santa Clara County and only 15 days in San Mateo County!  If you're home has been on the market longer than the median days on market then there must be something wrong with its condition, location, and oh yes, maybe the price.

Median Prices Increase -- Median prices of single family, condo and townhouse homes continue to march upward. For July, Santa Clara County's median price for single family residences, half above and half below or the middle transaction, increased to $695,000, compared to $598,000 the same month a year ago representing an increase of 16.2%. The median sales price for San Mateo County was $810,000.

Inventory of Available Homes for Sale Continue at Low Levels -- There were just 1,328 single family residences for sale in Santa Clara County and just 598 in San Mateo County. Not record lows but each are about 55% lower than in July 2011.

Apple's Campus of the Future - Courtesy Cupertino City Hall

What's HOT and What's NOT -- In Santa Clara County, the hottest market area is Cupertino and Sunnyvale with a Days of Unsold Inventory (DUI) of 25. In San Mateo County, the hottest area is Foster City/Redwood Shores with a DUI of 27. What's not is Los Gatos/Saratoga in Santa Clara County with a DUI of  102 and the expensive areas of Menlo Park, Atherton, Portola Valley, Hillsborough and Woodside in San Mateo County with a DUI of 117.

Lender-Controlled Transactions Take a Dive --Last month the percentage of homes on the market that are lender-controlled (short sale and bank-owned) shrank to just 10% in both counties! That means 90% of the active status homes are regular or equity sales. Of course, this percentage will vary throughout each county depending upon the area.

Thanks for reading my blog. I'm Tom McEvoy, Realtor with RE/MAX Santa Clara Valley -- Let me know if you have any comments, questions, observations or any future topics you'd like me to address.